1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a loading/unloading apparatus for loading/unloading a work on/from an arm of a moving hanger.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A painting booth for electro-static painting is disposed at a final stage of a production line for a disk wheel of a vehicle. The path of a hanger conveyer for carrying and conveying a work (in this case, a disk wheel) is disposed so as to pass through the painting booth. Loading/unloading apparatuses are disposed on front and rear sides of the painting booth for loading/unloading the work on/from a hanger of the hanger conveyer. The hanger includes an arm in the form of a rod for carrying the work. The conventional arm extends in a direction at a right angle with respect to a moving direction of the hanger and extends horizontally so that no interference between the work and the arm occurs during loading/unloading of the work.
When the arm of the hanger extends horizontally, however, the paint used in electro-static painting collects on the arm and deteriorates electro-conductivity of the arm so as to cause a deficiency in the painting of the work. For preventing such collection of the paint on the arm, it has been newly considered effective to design the arm to extend obliquely upward in the direction away from a support rod to which the arm is fixed at its one end because the collecting paint flows down along the arm due to gravity. However, when the arm extends obliquely upward, it becomes impossible to load/unload the work on-from the arm in the horizontal direction because interference between the work and the arm occurs.
Since the vertically extending support rod of the conventional hanger is free, balancing of the loaded works during loading/unloading is required for preventing the hanger from inclining and for preventing the works from slipping down from the hanger. Thus, in view of these deficiencies in the prior art apparatus, it has been necessary to develop a loading/unloading apparatus that can load/unload a work on/from an obliquely upward extending arm of a moving hanger yet which does not incline the hanger during loading/unloading. In addition, such loading/unloading has to be performed without stopping movement of the hanger conveyer.